Hey there fellow fan, how are you holding up during this barren Arsenal weekend? Any good? 

I’m feeling your pain, because I feel pretty fed up at the lack of Arsenal too, so we can both be a bit morose with Sky and BT for fudging around with the fixtures. Monday Night Football may give a football fan something to watch after the first day of the working week, but don’t let it be Arsenal, have some other clubs playing. Like Spuds away to Weet Brom or something.

But it is what it is and at least we have Arsène’s pre-match pressed to pour over and dissect to the nth degree. During it he confirmed the situation regarding our current injury status, which is pretty much ‘as is’, so that’s good to hear (in terms of no new ‘set backs’). Le Boss also confirmed that Alexis is almost at 100% match fitness and given that we’re only in to the third game of the season, he really is a staggering example of a footballer. When you think about how most players coming back from the World Cup last season needed a month or even two before they started to look like their usual selves, he continues to amaze and astound us. Quite why Barcelona swapped him for Suarez is beyond me. Perhaps I am too obviously biased, but Suarez and Alexis look evenly matched in terms of what they bring to a team, so it looks like Alexis fell victim to the fact that he wasn’t seen as a ‘superstar’ and the Barcelona (and Madrid) fans and club itself always want something shiny and new. Had Alexis signed from Udinese to Arsenal, had three or four years with us and then Barcelona were looking at him because he’d impressed with us, I’m convinced they would have been after him as much as Suarez. But hey, let’s not complain too much, because we’ve been gifted a truly marvellous footballer. At Liverpool’s expense too.

It will be an interesting game on Monday up against the Scousers, because they have a 100% record and will go in to the game with plenty of confidence, so I expect it will be tough. More on that tomorrow and Monday, but Arsène alluded to the fact that there was perhaps a bit of fortune to their start in the late goal at Stoke, coupled with the incorrect goal against Bournemouth. He worded it very cleverly though, being careful not to sound like he’s underestimating Liverpool, so to avoid giving them the clichéd ‘newspaper cutting on the dressing room door’.

He did have a point about the disallowed goal though, specifically when related to video technology, because we now live in an age where the reaction can be rapid once a decision has been reviewed. Had a video referee messaged down to the referee/linesman whilst Liverpool were celebrating – which was at least 30 seconds to a minute – there could have been enough time to review, see it wasn’t a goal and bring it back as a goal kick. Between a goal going in and the kick off for the restart is usually at least two minutes. Are you telling me that another official couldn’t make a decision in two minutes? Sky Sports were able to, so they also were able to reverse that time decision without any other stoppages that wouldn’t have happened during the goal. But anyway, it’s done, the Premier League/FA won’t change and we have to accept it.

What we also have to accept (although I think some still refuse to) is that we probably won’t be signing anybody at this stage. Paying attention to the ITKs and attention seekers is a waste of time. Decisions can be made so quickly, so quite why the ITKs talk about these transfers as if they are dragging out, shows that they know nothing. “Arsène just needs to decide if he wants to bid”, “the player will travel to London within the next 48 hours” and other such nonsense is, well, nonsense. Arsenal and Arsène aren’t at home right now with a blank piece of paper that reads ‘pros/cons’ on it with Benzema’s face in the middle of the A4 piece. If the club are interested in Benzema and haven’t bid it is because they are assessing the current situation, not waiting on Le Boss’ list and available Easyjet flights to Luton.

I did have a wry smile when Arsène spoke about closing the transfer window before the season starts, because we’d have signed nobody over the last couple of years of that would have been the case!

(I realise that the opposite might also be true i.e.having Özil et al at the club earlier than we did)

I’ve seen a few people getting irate – usually those from the school of thinking that believes Adrian Durham has some relevance – at Arsène talking about the lack of available players. I don’t really understand why. His rationale was perfectly logical. Football has lots of money in it. Football teams that 20 years ago could not refuse a big money bid for their players, are bidding big money for players themselves, so they have the financial muscle to convince players that they have a future by waving the all-mighty-pound at the players who have one less reason to angle for a move. If footballers are as money-motivated as most of the world says, surely Arsène’s comments make sense?

What he was really getting about players for Arsenal, was that there isn’t any available who would improve our first team, which I agree. We don’t want or need squad players, all of the players that are being touted around are just that, so what’s the point in even looking at them?

We’re in a good place right now and a win against Liverpool on Monday night doesn’t mean Arsène has an excuse to not sign players, it means we’re three points closer to that league title challenge we want. Let’s all focus on that, eh?

Catch you tomorrow.